Carronade

Carronade
Type	Naval gun
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Service history
In service	1778–1881
Used by	British Empire France Spain Denmark-Norway Republic of Texas Two Sicilies Sardinia
Wars	American Revolutionary War, French Revolutionary Wars, Napoleonic Wars, War of 1812, American Civil War, First Boer War
Production history
Designer	Robert Melville
Designed	1778
Manufacturer	Carron Company
Specifications
Mass	12–18 pounders

A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast-iron naval cannon. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and, all in all, counting all nations, was used from the last quarter of the 18th century to the mid-19th century. The first navy to use carronades was the Royal Navy. When this new weapon proved its efficiency, other navies such as those of France and Spain adopted it progressively in the late 18th Century and onwards.

The main function of the carronades was to serve as a powerful, short-range, anti-ship and anti-crew weapon. The technology behind the carronade was greater dimensional precision, with the shot fitting more closely in the barrel, thus transmitting more of the propellant charge's energy to the projectile, allowing a lighter gun using less gunpowder to be effective.

Carronades were initially found to be very successful, but they eventually disappeared as naval artillery advanced, with the introduction of rifling and consequent change in the shape of the projectile, exploding shells replacing solid shot, and naval engagements being fought at longer ranges.